The Minimal Flavor Structure from Decomposition of the Fermion Mass Matrix

Abstract

The minimal flavor structures for both quarks and leptons are proposed to address fermion mass hierarchy and flavor mixings by bi-unitary decomposition of the fermion mass matrix. The real matrix ${\bf M}_0^f$ is completely responsive to family mass hierarchy, which is expressed by a close-to-flat matrix structure. The left-handed unitary phase ${\bf F}_L^f$ provides the origin of CP violation in quark and lepton mixings, which can be explained as a quantum effect between Yukawa interaction states and weak gauge states. The minimal flavor structure is realized by just 10 parameters without any redundancy, corresponding to 6 fermion masses, 3 mixing angles and 1 CP violation in the quark/lepton sector. This approach provides a general flavor structure independent of the specific quark or lepton flavor data. We verify the validation of the flavor structure by reproducing quark/lepton masses and mixings. Some possible scenarios that yield the flavor structure are also discussed.